West Wing Reads for 10/20/17
Summary:
Each day we round up the best stories the West Wing is reading and share them with you.
“IT’S TIME WE ADD TAX REFORM TO TRUMP’S LONG LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS”
-Thomas Hicks, Jr., The Hill
Thomas Hicks, Jr., America First Policies board chairman, writes in The Hill, “President Trump has put forward a framework for much-needed and long-overdue reform of our tax code,” and he has “set an example of achievement in the face of unprecedented, intransigent opposition.” Hicks writes Americans should reject skepticism in the media that tax reform won’t be passed, because they've been continually wrong about the President. Since he was inaugurated, “the economy has added over one million private sector jobs,” the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit 45 record highs, President Trump has enacted more legislation and signed more executive orders than any President in half a century, and “those are just some of the accomplishments.” With his tax reform framework, President Trump, “has held up his end of the bargain” to make America great again and put Americans back to work, Hicks writes, and “now it’s time for every member of Congress—Republicans and Democrat—to step up and do the job the American people elected them to do.”
Click here to read more
Click here to read more
------------
On tax reform proceedings, The Washington Times reports that the Senate took “a crucial first step” last night towards tax reform by passing its annual budget.
------------
In the Washington Examiner, Americans for Prosperity’s Akash Chougule writes anyone who needs proof that “taxes matter for economic growth” should look to the states, citing a new report from the Tax Foundation showing “that states with lower taxes and reasonable levels of government spending have stronger economies and are more attractive for businesses and individuals.”
------------
Regarding healthcare, the Institute For Policy Innovation’s Merrill Matthews writes in The Wall Street Journal that President Trump’s recent executive order to “expand health-insurance options for individuals battered by exploding premiums and fleeing insurers” represents “progress” on health care, but says Congress still needs to act in order to give Americans relief from Obamacare.
------------
In economic news, USA Today reports that “the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since Richard Nixon was president,” with the Labor Department saying that jobless claims are now at their lowest level since March 1973.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 20, 2017
Statement Regarding Military Justice
Military justice is essential to good order and discipline, which is indispensable to maintaining our armed forces as the best in the world. Each military justice case must be resolved on its own facts. The President expects all military personnel who are involved in any way in the military justice process to exercise their independent professional judgment, consistent with applicable laws and regulations. There are no expected or required dispositions, outcomes, or sentences in any military justice case, other than those resulting from the individual facts and merits of a case and the application to the case of the fundamentals of due process of law by officials exercising their independent judgment.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 20, 2017
Presidential Executive Order Amending Executive Order 13223
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 13223
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and in furtherance of the objectives of Proclamation 7463 of September 14, 2001 (Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks), which declared a national emergency by reason of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Pennsylvania and against the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States, and in order to provide the Secretary of Defense additional authority to manage personnel requirements in a manner consistent with the authorization provided in Executive Order 13223 of September 14, 2001 (Ordering the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty and Delegating Certain Authorities to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Transportation), it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Amendment to Executive Order 13223. Section 1 of Executive Order 13223 is amended by adding at the end: "The authorities available for use during a national emergency under sections 688 and 690 of title 10, United States Code, are also invoked and made available, according to their terms, to the Secretary concerned, subject in the case of the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, to the direction of the Secretary of Defense."
Sec. 2. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 20, 2017.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 20, 2017
Remarks by President Trump and United Nations Secretary-General Guterres in Meeting
Oval Office
12:25 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. It's great to have the Secretary-General with us. We've become friends. Even before I was doing what I'm doing right now, we were friends; we knew each other.
You have done a very, very spectacular job at the United Nations. And I can tell you, speaking for the United States, we appreciate it.
And I know you're working with our ambassador. Nikki is in a very, very unique class. She is -- we're very proud of you, and we want to thank you for the job you're doing.
But it's an honor to have you, and thank you very much for being here. A lot to discuss.
SECRETARY-GENERAL GUTERRES: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I must say that I'm extremely grateful, first of all, for the support that you have given us in relation to our reform process, coming to the General Assembly.
I am a true believer that we live in a messy world but we need a strong reforms and modernized U.N. We need a strong United States, engaged based on its traditional values -- freedom, democracy, human rights. And we need a very solid cooperation between the U.S. and the U.N. And it's a great pleasure to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
SECRETARY-GENERAL GUTERRES: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I have to say, the United Nations has tremendous potential. It hasn't been used over the years nearly as it should be, but the United Nations -- perhaps almost more than any other thing I can think of.
And I will tell you, I also happen to think that the United States, even as well as we're doing right now, has additionally tremendous potential. We have just started.
But the United Nations has this great, great -- it's almost a power to bring people together like nothing else. It hasn't been used. You are starting to really get your arms around it, and I have a feeling that things are going to happen with the United Nations like you haven't seen before.
I mean, to have this group of nations in one location with one person -- which is you -- leading it strongly, I think, is -- in terms of world peace and other things and other -- many other things that you're working on -- I just wish you luck because the potential that you have is really unlimited. Good luck.
SECRETARY-GENERAL GUTERRES: Thank you very much. And I need all of the luck -- (laughter) --
THE PRESIDENT: No, you need luck -- you need luck and you need talent. Okay? You need talent. And he's got the talent. Now we'll see what happens. I'll report back to you in about seven years what I think.
Okay, thank you all very much. Thank you.
END
12:28 P.M. EDT
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου